If you're interested in building a solid, unified team that works well together, you've probably already heard about the importance of team-building activities and rituals. But what does that actually mean? How do you encourage your employees to bond and strengthen ties? 

Team rituals are a great way to build a sense of belonging to a group and foster trust within your team. They help you develop a bond that can make your team feel like they're part of something special. Team members will appreciate the time you take to create these rituals, as well as their inclusion in them. 

Congratulations on making the first step toward building an engaging workplace!

If you look deeper at team rituals you will see that they give your team an opportunity to interact outside of work too. This will help build true connections or even friendships between coworkers.

How to know if your team rituals are working – and what to do if they aren’t

A team ritual should be fun and energizing, but it also needs to be good for your employees’ mental health and well-being. The best way to ensure that your rituals are having the desired effect? A little trial and error.

Here are some of the questions you should ask yourself when deciding if a particular ritual is working:

Are people looking forward to this activity?

Is there more energy in the team (e.g. more emojis, gifs, chat messages used) after we take part in the ritual? 

Do people feel better about themselves after participating in a ritual?

If you answer yes to these questions, chances are you’re on the right track! If not, maybe it’s time for an adjustment or two.

If your answers are mostly no instead of mostly yes, then it might be time for a change. Maybe some tweaks could help make the activity more interesting or exciting—or maybe it's just not working well with your team's personality type or skill set (e.g., introverts vs extroverts).

Good types of team rituals to build into your weekly schedule

Team rituals should be focused on bringing people together to have fun and interact in a way that does not allow for work topics. They should give the team something to look forward to, and they should be flexible enough that they can work with your schedule. You want them to be consistent, so everyone knows what's expected of them and when things are going down.

Morning coffee (or tea) together: A classic team ritual that gets people talking about their days. It can even be async by sending an image of the beverage with voice message 

Morning gif check-in: Let your team members describe their current mood with one Gif (or emoji)

What’s your weather like?: Let teams post their current weather if they live in different places

Monday-funday: Start the week by playing engaging games together instead of boring meetings that no one wants

Celebrate with music: Every time a team member has something to celebrate post your favorite song

Mindfulness rituals: Start off meetings with a little breathing exercise, or meditation

Break the ice with icebreakers: Use icebreaker questions before every meeting, to get to know your team members even better

Design team rituals with the power of leaderboards

Leaderboards are a great way to track progress. Your co-workers will love the opportunity to see how they're doing compared to their peers, and this can be especially motivating for individuals who might otherwise struggle with self-improvement or setting goals. Especially when it comes to the field of team rituals which are designed to be fun, your team will see leaderboards as a way of showing them you care about their wellbeing. This in turn strengthens trust and a positive team culture. We just recently released the leaderboard feature of doozy, you should have a look at it and see how easy you can show your team you care.

As you can see, team rituals work best when everyone is on board. They help you to build a strong team culture and keep everyone motivated. But if your team isn’t engaged or doesn’t feel like they have a voice in these rituals, then it won’t be as effective. 

So before starting a team ritual, make sure that all of your team members understand what it is and why they should take part in it! A good way to do this is by having an open discussion with them so that they can share ideas on what types of things would benefit them most from doing weekly.

Which team ritual from our list do you like the best? 

Share it and tag us on LinkedIn over at Doozyhq!

How to create team rituals your co-workers will love

Do you remember when you were a kid and just wanted to play with your friends all day? Well, it turns out your younger self was really onto something.

Playing and engaging with others is not only reserved for the young. Grown-ups can also benefit from regular social activities, especially in the work environment, and so can their companies.

Not convinced? Let's look at what researchers say:

"Companies with high levels of engagement experience 40% lower staff turnover than companies with low levels of engagement".

- Dr. Amy Armstrong, Sharon Olivier, and Sam Wilkinson in "Shades of Grey: An exploratory study of engagement in work teams"

With all this in mind, let's step into the field by learning why team rituals matter and how weekly socials can improve your employee engagement.

The relationship between employee engagement and organisational culture is a two-way street. Engagement builds on cultural foundations, while culture influences engagement.

The connection between company trust and employee engagement is a good example of this interaction.

Company trust is an important factor in how employees feel about their work environment and their leaders. This impacts how they perceive their own contributions to the organisation and whether they feel like their work matters.

"Workers are hungry for trust, social cohesion, and purpose."

- McKinsey in "This time it’s personal: Shaping the ‘new possible’ through employee experience"

In turn, employee perceptions influence how engaged they are at work—in other words, if you want to increase your team’s participation in social events during the week (like company happy hours), it helps if your team trusts what you do as a manager or leader.

You can get a deeper understanding of the importance of employee engagement by reading our post on this topic. 


How weekly team socials lead to employee engagement

Team socials are a great way for employees to connect with each other and build relationships.They also allow you to see how your team functions when they’re away from work. Having team socials as a ritual is key to connecting a team, especially if the team is remote, or distributed.

Rituals help establish trust and comfortability in an environment where it otherwise might not exist, which is why they’re so beneficial when it comes to building strong bonds between co-workers. 

For example: if you have a ritual of playing a short and fun round of a game with your team every Monday morning, you establish a positive atmosphere right at the beginning of the week.

As Monday mornings are often associated with many, or long meetings, this can instead bring a breath of fresh air into your team culture. This ritual also fosters communication between all members of the team in a smooth way without putting pressure on anyone.

Team socials are an opportunity to catch up with the team and chat about your weekend plans, but sometimes you need an icebreaker, so we recommend having fun with our icebreakers to get the conversation flowing.

Cheeky plug: When it comes to planning socials, Doozy has you covered with its easy-to-organise, easy-to-join and easy-to-repeat events that make planning weekly rituals a breeze. Our ever-growing library of activities means your team can enjoy a new engaging activity every week.

Hopefully, you've now got some ideas for how to start weekly team socials. But it doesn’t have to stop here! There are plenty of ways to make your team socials more engaging and fun, so get creative!

If you need more inspiration, check out some of our quizzes. 

Remember that it’s not just about having fun—it’s also about bringing your team closer together and strengthening their relationships with each other.

Drop us a line on Twitter @DoozyHQ or on LinkedIn @Doozy

How weekly team rituals can improve team engagement

Let’s be honest, if you ask most employers, they'd probably tell you that employee engagement is not their top priority. That’s a big mistake. 

Even before “The Great Resignation” of 2021, it's been hard to find good staff, let alone keep them happy and motivated. 

Research has shown that engaged employees are more productive and deliver higher customer satisfaction. So you ask, rightfully, why aren't companies investing more time and money in employee engagement? 

In my opinion, it boils down to an underestimation of the value of an investment in engagement. This is a mistake, as you will then have to react quickly if your staff are unhappy, unengaged and in the worst case scenario, leaving the company. 

Therefore, it’s advisable to be a proactive leader and lay out the foundation for a happy and engaged employee experience.

In this article, I will explore the often underestimated benefits of investing in employee engagement and thereby strengthening your employee and business foundation.

You will understand the benefits better if I clarify the terminology…



There is a lot of talk about employee engagement these days, and as mentioned above, with good reason. 

Having engaged employees is a critical part of any company's success, but what exactly does it mean to be "engaged" and how do you know if your employees are engaged?

According to the global business consulting company Gallup, engaged employees are those who are involved in, enthusiastic about, and committed to their work and workplace. 

They feel a sense of connection to their company and tend to stay longer than other employees. They're also more productive and less likely to leave their job for another one.

Gallup estimates that there are 35 million engaged workers in America today, which means that there are nearly twice as many unengaged workers—67 million—giving them a majority of the workforce.

But why should you bother about engaged employees? 

As touched upon, the main benefits of having great employee engagement are that engaged employees: 

are more likely to stay with an organisation

These are crucial benefits to your business as they decrease churn and allow you to have a more stable foundation.

As employee engagement does not “work on its own” you have to invest time and money.

According to research by Oxford University, workers in a good mood are 13% more productive than their counterparts—they accomplish more and do so efficiently over longer periods of time, which helps boost the bottom line. 

On top of being able to get more done and faster, they also tend to come up with solutions more quickly because they genuinely care about what they’re doing and feel like an integral part of something bigger than themselves.

In addition, investing in employee engagement benefits recruiting new staff. 

Employee engagement programs and tools can be used as a reward for continued commitment and loyalty. This can have a positive impact on your company’s reputation with potential new hires, who are often concerned with how their employer treats existing staff. 

For example: if you offer great training opportunities, flexible working arrangements and show that you take team building seriously it may act as incentives for employees to stay with you long term. 

Now that you know how important employee engagement is and why you should be invested, you might ask: what should I do? 

What are activities for employee engagement?

There are many things that you can do to increase employee engagement. 

Training, development and team building activities

Involving employees in decision-making processes

All these aspects have one theme in common: Show your employees that you care.

Some of these suggestions take a lot of time and might involve creating new internal processes, like establishing reward programs. But others can be implemented quickly and easily, without having to stretch your wallet, like team building activities. 

Inform your team that you would love to strengthen the team spirit

As you see, you do not have to invest big sums. And it does not have to take ages, either. You can create an atmosphere of engaging employees in a matter of minutes by using the right tools.


Employee engagement can come in many shapes and sizes. It's not just one thing. 

Successful employee engagement is the result of implementing a sustained and focused initiative that targets all three drivers of engagement: emotional, physical, and intellectual. It's challenging but achievable. 

Especially when you use the right tools, it will be worth the time and money you invest in it.

Why employee engagement matters and you should invest in It

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Latest on our blog

How to create team rituals your co-workers will love

How weekly team rituals can improve team engagement

Why employee engagement matters and you should invest in It

Connect With Your .css-1jfa32o{background:#fdcdae;}Remote Team

Team socials, employee onboarding, company all-hands. They won't suck with Doozy.

Icebreakers

Games and quizzes

Event templates

Custom activities

Video built in

Event planner

Shared library

Analytics

Whiteboard

Premium experiences

Recurring rituals

Slack Integration

How to create team rituals your co-workers will love

How weekly team rituals can improve team engagement

Why employee engagement matters and you should invest in It

Connect With Your
Remote
Team

Team socials, employee onboarding,
company all-hands. They won't suck with Doozy.